Category: Mystery & Suspense

Written by Sara Paretsky

SUMMARY:

First released in 1985, Dell Publishing reprinted this third V.I. Warshawski mystery as a 339-page paperback in 1993.  The plot is set in Chicago of January-early February 1984. 

Once a public defender and now a private investigator for eight years, Victoria Iphigenia “V.I.” Warshawski reluctantly aids her long-estranged Italian relatives, elderly Great-Aunt Rosa and wimpy, forty-ish Cousin Albert.  It appears that spiteful Rosa is implicated in the discovery of forged stock certificates possessed by a Dominican priory she works for.  Worth millions, these missing stocks quickly draw attention from both the FBI and the SEC.  V.I. later recruits her friend Lotty’s elderly Uncle Stefan to help bait the elusive counterfeiter.

Meanwhile, V.I.’s British boyfriend, business executive/reinsurance broker, Roger Ferant, is increasingly worried that an  unknown entity intends to acquire one of his firm’s biggest American assets, Ajax Insurance, by nefarious means on the stock market.  Once Albert dismisses V.I. from the forgery case, she suspiciously insists on digging deeper still. 

Already contending with old emotional wounds, the ever-savvy V.I. soon finds herself entangled in multiple assaults, arson, and homicide.  One taunting adversary evens threatens retaliation by blinding her with acid.  With a trusted friend executed for discreetly probing local brokerage firms, this case becomes intensely personal for V.I.

Amidst the winter’s brutal cold, she senses a complicated financial scheme is making shadowy figures sweat in upper-echelon Chicago and possibly even overseas.  Such steep odds means V.I. must rely on shrewd crime reporter Murray Rierson for help – especially as scrutinizing law enforcement would rather see her arrested.  Desperately risking everything she has, V.I. expects a fight to the ruthless end, especially if the Catholic Church and the Chicago mob are involved.   

Note: The ‘n’ word appears once in the text.

REVIEW:

For hard-boiled female detective fiction, Killing Orders concocts a fairly good read.  Keeping in mind genre contrivances (i.e. several of V.I.’s associates are conveniently linked to the case), the increasingly convoluted storyline becomes perhaps too ambitious late in the game.  Still, all the underlying sub-plots are neatly tidied up, as Sara Paretsky strives to make a perpetually snarky V.I. likable to readers.  

For V.I. Warshawski fans, Killing Orders is a formulaic winner, but, for others, it’ll more likely be deemed as one-and-done.            

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

Along with a chapter list, Paretsky includes her acknowledgements.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                 5½ Stars

Written by Catherine Coulter

SUMMARY:

Jove Books re-released this title as a 451-page paperback edition in 2014.  Previously seen in 2012’s Backfire, FBI Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith has nearly completed his cross-country drive from San Francisco to join Dillon Savich’s elite unit in Washington, D.C.  Hammersmith intends to first stop over and briefly visit his kid sister, Delsey Freestone, who is a promising student at the prestigious Stanislaus School of Music in Maestro, Virginia. 

During the night before her brother’s arrival, an inebriated Delsey is nearly killed after she glimpses an unknown bloody corpse in her own bathtub.  With his severely-concussed sister hospitalized, Hammersmith finds himself assigned to the case. All isn’t what it appears, as he soon suspects that someone at Stanislaus may be involved in illicit schemes extending far beyond a local break-in.  Complicating Hammersmith’s probe is one of Delsey’s classmates, with secrets of her own.  

Meanwhile, amidst the bitter cold of the nation’s capital, Dillon Savich & Lacey Sherlock’s FBI squad investigate a bizarre murder after a frozen nude corpse is left overnight at The Lincoln Memorial.  A grotesque image of the crime is subsequently uploaded on the internet by presumably the culprit making this crime a sensationalistic topic amongst the public. As the victim was the college-age grandson of the Federal Reserve Bank’s controversial former chairman, the squad find this grisly homicide may be linked to other crimes, both in the past and the imminent future. 

Along with Sheriff Dix Noble and the DEA, the team aids Hammersmith, as he is outmatched by dark forces still seeking to kill Delsey.  Included for good measure are brief references setting up The Final Cut – A Brit in the FBI (the first book in a series spin-off starring Nicholas Drummond).

Note: Bombshell was previously released as a hardcover in 2013. This title is also available digitally.

REVIEW:

Catherine Coulter’s consistency slickly writing this series is evident, as Bombshell provides routine proof.  Granted, would anyone really believe that a real-world FBI Speial Agent would be officially assigned to investigate his own sister’s near-homicide?  Or that married agents actually work together in the same investigative unit (let alone have one supervise the other)? Or that previously evasive witnesses will conveniently buckle at the right moment and confess vital evidence to the FBI without an attorney present? Or that two major cases would simultaneously resolve inside of a week?  

Of course not – but Coulter’s literary talent and years of experience honing her ongoing cast of FBI personnel makes it an enjoyable read suspending one’s sense of disbelief at the novel’s fast pace.  Where she falters, however, is over-indulging a tendency to pitch unnecessary throwaway details that, to varying degrees, may test a reader’s patience. 

For instance, depicting a frozen corpse as totally nude is a salacious element that is utterly irrelevant to the plot. Or extra tidbits like: Hammersmith, by sheer coincidence, owns classical CD’s of two of his homicide case’s main suspects; Savich & Hammersmith are both grandsons of famous female artists (one a painter and the other a singer); Delsey quickly recognizes Savich & Sherlock’s young son due to his ‘internet’ fame, etc. Such storytelling winks might work for Nora Roberts and Jayne Anne Krentz, but, in Coulter’s Bombshell, the abundance of such eye-rollers hampers her storyline’s credulity.   

In spite of formulaic plot contrivances and glaring instances of self-promotion (i.e. repetitively hyping The Final Cut), Bombshell, for the most part, provides the necessary suspense.  Coulter’s knack for constructing a relatively complex plot is a plus, since Bombshell maintains dual storylines that intersect only as necessary.  She also makes Griffin Hammersmith and presumably his future partner a likable crime-fighting duo; one could readily infer that Bombshell is meant to explore interest in them as another potential spin-off. 

If anything, Coulter delivers reliable entertainment to keep stashed at one’s desk or for those long airport layovers.        

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

A three-page sample previews the series’ next entry: Power Play.  In a reverse-chronology, a list of Coulter’s FBI Thriller titles is provided.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                      7 Stars

Written by Dashiell Hammett

SUMMARY:

First published in 1933-34, this 201-page Vintage Crime/Black Lizard reprint was issued in 1992.  As narrated by a world-weary Nick Charles, he and his young wife, Nora, are presently enjoying an extended Christmas holiday in 1932 New York City.  Some five years before, the forty-ish war veteran Nick had retired from his life as an ace private detective there upon marrying into Nora’s wealthy San Francisco family.  Taking a break from the West Coast, Nick has brought Nora to revisit some of his old haunts. 

In a 52^nd St. speakeasy, Nick is approached by young Dorothy, who is the daughter of his quirky ex-client, inventor Clyde Miller Wynant.  Along with her mother – Wynant’s unsavory ex-wife, Mimi, the two are evidently hard up for money.  They ask for Nick’s aid finding the elusive Wynant, who has quietly been withdrawing large sums of cash.  Initially, the best Nick is willing to do is refer Dorothy to her father’s attorney, Herbert Macauley. 

The violent homicide of Wynant’s secretary, Julia Wolf, subsequently has both the local police and potential witnesses seeking Nick’s reluctant help.  Among them is the prime suspect, Wynant, who sends written messages to Macauley and Nick requesting the former detective’s expertise finding Julia’s murderer.  Stuck being the case’s unofficial consultant, Nick deduces that the shadowy killer won’t settle for just one victim.

Note: The title itself refers to the stick-like Wynant rather than Nick Charles.    

REVIEW:

One might presume The Thin Man is a tongue-in-cheek precursor to contemporary mystery works featuring romantic couples as amateur sleuths.  Imbued with witty repartee, six 1930’s-40’s comedic mystery films inspired by the novel certainly attest to the enduring charm of Nick & Nora Charles.  The literary originals are indeed likable, but William Powell & Myrna Loy’s light-hearted Hollywood schtick adapting Nick & Nora is sorely missing upon reading the source material. 

While Dashiell Hammett’s novel is hyped as “a sophisticated comedy of manners,” that description doesn’t deliver a Prohibition-era cozy mystery.  Thumbing his nose at The Depression, Hammett’s idea of sophisticated humor equates to Nick & Nora sipping cocktails (with or without company) and trading quips amidst evidently free refills.     

Unlike Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence Beresford mysteries, Hammett’s darker tone deploys traditionally gritty noir peppered by Nick & Nora’s marital banter.  Specifically, an excitable/semi-tipsy Nora is utilized prodding her husband (cynical wisecracking aside) into revealing his deductions.  In that regard, The Thin Man’s storytelling structure is sufficient when the time comes for Nick’s down-to-earth reasoning to explain why all isn’t what it seems.

Hammett’s caper, however, is so drenched in booze from the get-go (i.e. characters are swilling practically every other page) that this intriguing whodunnit grows tiresome.  It also doesn’t help that Hammett resorts to caricatures (i.e. the hapless Dorothy Wynant) rather than actual characters to help peddle his snarky dialogue.  Aside from blatantly glamorizing alcohol, casual inferences to police brutality and physical abuse of Wynant’s two children are unsettling, to say the least. 

The novel’s final stretch resolves various plot threads satisfactorily, no matter how convoluted and gruesome the culprit’s scheme becomes.  Hence, the underlying motive, let alone the killer’s identity, isn’t much of a surprise; by genre standards, it’s practically standard-issue.  Though the novel has solid moments, The Thin Man’s brand of detective noir doesn’t age particularly well for a 21^st Century audience. 

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

The first page is a short author bio.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                    5½ Stars

Written by Joan Hess

SUMMARY:

First published in 1992, this 239-page St. Martin’s Minotaur Books paperback reprint was released in 2003.  Like the other entries in this series, it’s a first-person narrative by bookstore owner/amateur sleuth Claire Malloy.

Dragging along Caron (her self-absorbed teenage daughter), Claire Malloy leaves Farberville, Arkansas, for a weekend stint becoming acquainted with her late husband’s relatives.  This awkward family reunion is being held at the dilapidated Malloy Manor estate, deep in the rural Louisiana bayous. 

As guests for matriarch Justicia’s 80^th birthday, Claire must fend off sexual advances from her lecherous brother-in-law, Stanford, as well as meeting an assortment of greedy Malloy cousins.  Enigmatically spoken of is a second brother-in-law, the late Miller, that Claire never knew about.  There’s also rumors of a vengeful Civil War-era family ghost haunting the manor.

The downcast vibe continues at dinner that night.  After her cantankerous mother-in-law taunts the existence of yet another new will, Claire confirms little love is lost amongst Justicia and her openly scornful heirs.  Come midnight, a cackling Justicia goes for an inebriated joyride in her motorized wheelchair across the swampy estate.  Her family soon discovers that Justicia has suffered a fatal accident. 

Given some odd discrepancies that go unexplained, Claire suspects that Justicia’s demise wasn’t a convenient fluke.  More specifically, she thinks someone is willing to kill and perhaps kill again to expedite a long-awaited inheritance.      

Note: The book contains some profanities and implied racial bigotry.  An Asian racial slur also appears on page 30.

REVIEW:

It’s an unfortunate case of Claire Malloy treading shallow waters.  Make no mistake: Death By the Light of the Moon reads like a cliché checklist for Southern-fried cozy mysteries.  From the get-go, its dubious credibility resembles an old Scooby-Doo episode: “A Night of Fright is No Delight,” where several Southern-themed stereotypes are played to the hilt. 

Hence, this superficial caper from Joan Hess serves up a buffet of witty insults, as it struggles to be even a middling bedtime read.  For instance, Claire’s narrative, upon occasion, unnecessarily inserts obscure adjectives or adverbs that leaves one wondering ‘so what exactly does she mean?.’   

To no one’s surprise, Claire is the most likable, most relatable, and indeed most credible character, in comparison to her bigoted in-laws (as if the Malloy clan lives in some mid-19^th Century time warp).  Shrewd family attorney Rodney Spikenard later on is another plus, as his presence is a refreshing contrast to the Malloys.  As for Caron’s contributions, Hess sensibly relegates her off-screen for long stretches, as even a little of the character’s standard-issue teen angst played for laughs goes a long way. 

Otherwise, all readers get is a cynic’s festival of ‘bayou buffoons’ (extending to the police, local townsfolk, etc.), with few semblances of realism.  Notably, an old-school custom where the Malloys constantly defer to one other by title as “Cousin (insert name),” will grow tiresome long before even the third chapter.  Doses of snarky humor at least serve as some compensation for this underwhelming murder-mystery.

While Claire’s deductions (and, ultimately, the case’s solution) come off as semi-plausible, the simmering racial undertones oozing from Death By the Light of the Moon leave a disappointingly sour taste.  Above all, one can’t really dispute that Hess isn’t bothering to score originality points with the novel’s unimpressive plotting.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

An eight-page preview hypes a more recent Claire Malloy mystery novel: Damsels in Distress.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                3 Stars